Your Purpose Puzzle — Aligning The Pieces For A Successful Retirement
Introduction
Most kids love to play with puzzles and this activity often continues into adulthood. I spent many pleasant hours as a child putting puzzles together. In fact, one of the puzzles I put together was so large and complicated, I ended up mounting it on a board because it had taken so much time and effort to finish. There is something creatively challenging about selecting and arranging pieces of a puzzle to make a beautiful picture. The picture is complete because all of the pieces were placed exactly where they belonged.
As I began thinking about the whole concept of finding and fulfilling one’s life purpose, I thought about how this is very much like completing a puzzle. The many individual and irregular pieces create the larger, more comprehensive image of who we are. The completed picture begs the questions:
- Why are you here?
- What is your purpose?
- What’s important to you?
- How will you make a difference in the world?
It’s hard to understand the significance of these questions when we only look at the pieces, one at a time.
Before you begin to think about these deeper philosophical questions, you have to wonder why you are just now getting around to this important issue. The simple answer is that life happened! You grew up, graduated from school and began your career and family. The pace of life, along with personal and professional responsibilities, gained momentum and you never had the time to identify your life purpose. You may have deliberately set out to have the career you chose or you might have just stumbled into it.
For too many of us, the work we chose may not have aligned well with our purpose. If you like being with people but you are sitting alone in a cubical writing software, you may not feel fulfilled because you aren’t doing what you were meant to do. It’s much more challenging to find the energy to do your life’s work if you don’t feel the passion in your bones and what you’re doing doesn’t align well with your values. Values drive purpose and purpose, in turn, gives your life meaning. If you are clear on what your values and purpose are, the decisions you make and activities that you involve yourself in will reflect those values and purpose. If you’ve been lucky enough to be living on purpose in your working years, how can you now find purpose in your retirement years?
My Purpose
Growing up as the oldest female in an Italian family, I quickly learned I was responsible for and good at helping keep our household of seven people running smoothly since both of my parents worked. As an adult, it seemed natural to choose education as my career and I began by teaching children. After I received my graduate degree, I became a school counselor, guiding adolescents through those challenging high school years. As a psychotherapist in private practice, I continued to work with adolescents but also focused on helping adults become better parents and spouses.
Throughout my life, it’s been clear to me that my passion and purpose was to help others through various stages of their lives. Now, as a coach, speaker and consultant, I continue that path by providing support and direction to our boomer generation who are in pursuit of a quality retirement. We accomplish this by working together to identify or reconnect them with their purpose and passion in life.
Every summer, my husband and I enjoy watching America’s Got Talent, a show where people perform in front of a large, national audience. The moderator often tells the entertainers’ stories before they begin their performances. Often, they have enjoyed singing or entertaining people for years but have had to work at a job they didn’t like just to support themselves. By being on America’s Got Talent, they have the opportunity to realize their purpose in a performance career that could not only be satisfying to them but also provide them with adequate income.
New Opportunity
Regardless of how successful you’ve been aligning your career with your purpose, it’s your time for a second opportunity. Now that you are anticipating retirement, you have the time and space in your life to explore what you really want to do in this next life chapter. The door is opened to exciting possibilities. It is a well-deserved luxury you have earned. Even if you have been effectively living your purpose, you can expand it into other arenas of your life and community.
Purpose
So how do you go about finding your purpose? Spoiler alert—this isn’t easy! To get you started on this challenging discovery process, I have created an acronym using the word PURPOSE. Each letter represents a word or concept, which when explored, will help you begin the process of uncovering your purpose. These words and concepts are much like the individual puzzle pieces that create a complete picture. However, the complete picture won’t magically appear until you spend enough time thinking about the questions and are patient with your answers.
P – Positive: If you were absolutely positive you would succeed, what activity would you pursue? Would you become a singer, a lawyer, a race car driver, an artist, a teacher…? Knowing what you would do if you knew you couldn’t fail is an important clue.
U – Uplifting: What activity is uplifting for you and always puts a smile on your face? Everyone has something they love doing. What activity do you enjoy and how can it give you a clue to your purpose?
R – Respected: What are you respected for? What talents do others always compliment you for? Sometimes friends and family clearly see things in us that we ourselves don’t see. It reminds me of the old adage, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” Ask other people what they think your purpose is. Listen to their responses and learn more about you. Make sure you write down what they say.
P – Passionate: What are you passionate about that speaks to your creativity? All of us are creative in our own way. Writing poetry is easy for some while others seem to know how to fix almost anything. What do you often find yourself thinking about? What gets you excited and energized to the extent that time flies? What problems are easy for you to solve? Maybe there’s a life purpose clue in the answer to these simple questions.
O – Observe: What do you observe in your environment? What do you find yourself noticing around you? For example, a chiropractor might notice a person’s posture; a clothing retailer often notices what people are wearing; a chef definitely notices the taste and presentation of other people’s cooking. Pay close attention to the things that you feel drawn to observe. What is this saying about you?
S – Studying: What do you love to study or learn about? What subjects are you drawn to explore? What do you find yourself reading about? Are you reading biographies, history, politics, technical articles…? A review of what you enjoy reading can be a very powerful clue to discovering your purpose.
E – Enjoyment: What do you enjoy doing when you have free time? Where do you want to escape to when you have no obligations and no one is nagging you? What do you look forward to doing that is satisfying to you? What do you do that makes you relax into the experience?
No one can really discover what your purpose in life is except you. However, with personal reflection and feedback from family, friends and helping professionals, you can begin to discover and clarify your life’s purpose. You may already be living your purpose but didn’t have the language to describe your “life’s mission.” When you do, your energy will flow, your passion will come alive, and your actions will take flight. You will have found all of the pieces of your purpose puzzle.
I invite you to find your purpose and make the very best of the rest of your life.
Dee
Dee Cascio
Author, speaker, Licensed Psychotherapist, Certified Life Coach, Retirement Lifestyle/ReCareer Coach, and Life and Work Transitions Strategies Coach.
The Life and Work Transitions Community
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